The End Of Celebrity: OK! Beats Hello! – Zeta Jones And Douglas Take The Cake
WHO knew that when Catherine Zeta-Jones married Michael Douglas the whirlwind of romance would see them end up in court?
Of course, reformed sex addict Douglas and his far younger wife have not been speaking to divorce lawyers. Their love warms all it touches like a cosy travel rug spread over Michael’s youthful knees.
The couple went to court to fight for the right to sell photographs of their amazingly romantic wedding to whomsoever they want to. Exclusively.
Celebrity friends
OK! got the scoop. And Hello! was left to take secret pictures at the ceremony in a bid to match its rival. Hello! published six blurred pictures in all. And OK!, which had paid £1million for the exclusive rights to cover the 2000 wedding, was outraged.
In 2003, OK! sued. Hello! was ordered to pay damages. But then that was overturned on appeal. And now, OK!’s stable mate the Daily Star reports that the original ruling has been upheld at the High Court and Hello! must pay up.
Richard Desmond, owner of OK! and the Daily Star, tells his papery organ: “OK! has always been a friend of celebrities and the management and owners of Hello! behaved so despicably that I had to take the case all the way.” (See the matey “Keira’s Looking bonier than ever” in this week’s OK!.)
Indeed. Had Hello! won what would have stopped any glossy magazine or website equipping a wedding guest with a happy snapper and scooping the opposition who had paid so dearly for exclusivity?
A spokesman for Express newspapers tells an Express newspaper: “For Hello! to be exposed as preying on celebrities in this way may cause irreversible damage to it reputation.”
Taking The Cake
Was it not Miss Zeta-Jones who was made to feel “violated” by the “sleazy and unflattering photographs”. If one thing is to be guaranteed at a star-studded bash it is that the bride should look as is she has been dipped in cream and appear as flawless as a baby’s bum.
Who can forget that image of Douglas holding a spoonful of wedding cake and serving it to his beloved? Catherine was outraged – even it was one in the eye for those cynics who said it would be she looking after him, she feeding him with a spoon or straw.
The End Of Celebrity
But we wonder if OK! has erred? Might it be that Hello!, with its staple diet of minor European royalty and chinless wonders, should chance tack? Might it be that Hello! should become the antithesis of all the pappy, cloying, sycophantic bilge OK! pumps out?
Might it be that with celebrity at its apogee, it is time for the new Hello! to pull the red carpet out.
Here’s to the new Hello! – enemy to the celebrity; friend to the fat, pot-marked, bloated masses…
Posted: 3rd, May 2007 | In: Tabloids Comment | TrackBack | Permalink
